It turns out that there are "many duplicate enrollments" for consumers in that major milestone reported by the White House, the Times says.

Mark Pratt, a vice president at America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry trade group, says, "It may be a matter of months before insurers know how many people activated their coverage by paying their share of premiums."

The credible questioning of the 8 million figure is likely to create more agita for Democratic lawmakers who still find President Barack Obama’s signature issue a hard sell back home.

Newsmax reported last month that despite the President’s triumphant claim of 8 million enrollees — a figure barely questioned by the mainstream media — there is still no evidence that Obamacare is popularly supported.

The Times quotes Aetna executive Paul Wingle, "As of the third week of April, Aetna had over 600,000 members who had enrolled and roughly 500,000 members who had paid. For those who had reached their payment due date, the payment rate, though dynamic, has been in the low- to mid-80 percent range."

The poor rate of payment comes despite several extensions of the initial enrollment period for Obamacare.

"Another day, another Obamacare delay from the same Obama administration that won’t work with Republicans to help Americans suffering from the unintended consequences of the Democrats’ failed healthcare law," Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in March.

A Pew pollbefore today’s Times report found that Americans opposed to Obamacare have some pretty solid reasons, reports The Washington Post: 80 percent who disapprove say it's "too much government involvement in healthcare;" 76 percent call Obamacare "too expensive for the country"; 57 percent feared their "own healthcare may suffer."